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The News Argus
April 7. 2008
Campus Nfws/Features
African American Beauty
Review: Reynolda House Museum art
Howard U. stops Hilltop's presses
Shauntel Lowe
BWCK COLLEGE WIRE
IS impressive
Joe Houser
CONTRIBUTING REPORTER
Walking into the gallery.at Reynolda
House Museum of American Art in
Winston-Salem, you will feel engulfed by
a flowing sea of vibrant color stemming
from the exhibit, "Ancestry & Innovation:
African American art from the American
Folk Art Museum."
The exhibit, which runs through April
13, is an impressive display featuring
work from self-taught African American
artists. The paintings in the gallery are
especially interesting because they are so
simplistic.
"The simplicity of the paintings com
municates the artist's intentions of show
ing life through the eyes of an ordinary
artist," said Joseph Johnson, a Reynolda
House visitor.
These paintings may seem slightly
childlike to some people; however, these
artists taught themselves without the
benefit of professional instruction.
In contrast to the paintings, the sculp
tures and quilts on display are intricate
and complex. The colors the artists used
are so vivid that it is hard to take your
eyes away from them. The focus of one
quilt is a hexagon, which radiates out
into the shape of a star. The colors are so
vibrant; it seems as if you are looking at
the sun itself.
Another impressive piece of art is "The
Last Frontier." This is basically a love
seat/end table/primping station all in one.
Although it seems like just a bunch of
junk thrown together, it has such lucid
color, intricate design and amazing lines
that you can't help but stare at its beauty.
The exhibit offers an exquisite display
of extraordinary art made by ordinary
people. Reynolda House and its current
exhibit of African American art is open
from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday
through Saturday and from 1:30 p.m. to
4:30 p.m. on Sunday, and is at 2250
Reynolda Rd.
-www.reynoldahouse.org
Photos courtesy of the Smithsonian
m
A Howard University policy
; board decided that the print
I edition of the student newspa-
' per will not be published for
j the rest of the school year, but
i the paper will continue pub-
■ lishing online as the staff tries
to dig itself out of a financial
crisis.
"There's not enough money
that would allow them to
print a daily between now
and the end of the year,"
University spokesperson Ron
Harris told Black College
Wire late Wednesday, March
26.
Drew Costley, Hilltop editor
The division of student
affairs has agreed to pay for a
special print graduation issue
in May and will pay the
salaries of the staff publishing
online for the rest of the
school year, Harris said.
Last week, the top editor of
the Hilltop, Drew Costley said
the paper owed its printer, the
Washington Times, $48,000 for
past printing bills.
Since news broke about the
situation, more than $20,000
has been raised for the paper
by various campus depart
ments, faculty, staff and
alumni, Harris said. But the
board determined it was not
enough.
In addition to the overdue
printing bills, the has had to
deal with missing funds and
unpaid advertising. In a
March 21 interview, Costley
said that the business office
had not sent out invoices and
tearsheets to advertisers for a
month and a half during the
fall, resulting in $40,000 to
$45,000 in lost revenue.
Business manager speaks out
But on March 27, the
Hilltop's business manager,
Ashley Marshall, said the lost
revenue, which was discussed
at the latest policy board
meeting, only amounted to
about $10,000. Marshall, a jun
ior majoring in legal commu
nications, said a member of
the business staff had been
logging the invoices but did
not physically mail them out
to advertisers and was fired in
part because of that.
Marshall said the real issue
is not the amount of lost rev
enue.
"We just didn’t get enough
revenue altogether," she said.
According to Marshall, fall
advertising revenue for the
paper has been falling
steadily since 2005, the first
year the paper went daily. In
fall 2005, over $149,000 worth
of ads were sold. In fall, 2006
the amount was a little over
$122,000. This past fall, only
$86,000 worth of ads were
sold, she said. These figures
show a 42 percent drop in ad
revenue in just two years.
Marshall attributes the drop
to a nationwide struggle for
print publications to secure
advertising and inadequate
training and time for her and
her staff to do ad campaigns.
She said she applied for the
business manager position in
spring 2007 but was not
hired.
In mid-August, two weeks
before the start of the school
year, the business manager
who had been hired quit, and
Marshall stepped in as an
interim business manager
before officially being hired
in September.
The office was not ready for
the start of the school year,
she said, explaining that dur
ing the summer, the business
manager is paid to stay and
collect revenue from the pre
vious school year and create
ad campaigns for the upcom
ing year, but none of that got
done for this year, she said.
Staff needs more training,
support
"The real issue with the
Hilltop is that there's not
enough support for the finan
cial matters of the Hilltop.
When the Hilltop went daily,
knowing that it was going to
be a lot more fiscally strenu
ous on the paper, there should
have been more advisers put
on the board for financial pur
poses," Marshall said.
Harris said there are 17
members on the policy board,
including students, faculty
and staff.
Recently, Costley said in
January, $20,000 was missing
from the paper's account and
no one seemed to know
where it had gone. On March
26, Harris said that as the
result of an "accounting
error," some money had been
missing from the paper's
account, but he did not know
when or how much.
"Some money was inadver
tently transferred to a differ
ent accormt and as soon as
that mistake was discovered
that money was transferred
back," he said.
Marshall said the error
related to the payroll system
and they knew where the
money was.
For now, Harris said the
university has created a sub
committee within the policy
board to determine what sys
temic issues con\:ributed to
the current financial crisis
and how to avoid a similar
situation in the future.
"The ideal solution is for
the Hilltop to be printing
daily as it was before," Harris
said.
Black Republicans: MLK was one of us
Roddie A. Burris
MOT WIRE SERVICE
COLUMBIA, S.C.
Martin Luther King Jr. is turning heads
near Interstate 26 in Orangeburg, S.C., fea
tured on a billboard that claims the nation's
foremost civil rights leader was a partisan.
"Martin Luther King Jr. was a REPUBLI
CAN," the sign reads.
Erected by a group
called the National Black
Republican Association,
the sign has become one
of the latest volleys in
America's disjointed con
versation about race and
history.
"I almost broke my
neck trying to look at it,"
said Katon Dawson, S.C.
Republican Party chair
man, who said he saw
the advertisement
recently while attending
a conference in the area.
Though the billboard
is "not in coordination
with the South Carolina
Republican Party,"
Dawson said he
applauds its message
because, in this con
tentious election year, it
highlights Republicans'
views that the
Democratic Party tradi
tionally takes blacks'
votes for granted.
"The South Carolina
Republican Party is not
going to concede any
vote of any group in this
state," Dawson said.
Based in Sarasota, Fla., the National Black
Republican Association goes much further
in its criticism of the Democratic Party, call
ing it racist and socialist.
Frances Rice, a co-founder and chair
woman of the association, recently said the
Democratic Party is laden w'ith racists, bred
from its support of segregation. She said the
party has misled the country by dangling
dead-end social programs in the faces of
black people.
We're trying to capture the attention of
our fellow citizens, particularly African-
Americans, and inspire them to go to our
Web site and get the real facts, including the
fact that Dr. Martin Luther King was a
Republican," Rice said. "That's one way to
capture the imagination of our citizens."
The association's Web site says its goal is
to return African-
Americans to their
Repubhcan Party
roots by enlighten
ing them about how
the GOP fought for
civil rights and is
fighting for their
educational and
economic advance
ment.
"This is crazy,"
said Joe Werner,
executive director
of the S.C.
Democratic Party.
"It is almost laugh
able that any believ
able person would
think that the party
of Lee Atwater and
Karl Rove have the
best interests of
African-Americans
at heart."
Rice correctly
points out that
African-Americans
historically were
Republican voters.
But critics point out
that black voters
abandoned the
party in droves when civil rights legislation
was signed into law by Democratic
President Lyndon Johnson in the 1960s.
"My father was a Republican, so what
does that mean?" asked Rep. Jim Clyburn, a
Democrat who represents Orangeburg and
arguably the most Democratic county in
South Carolina. "The fact of the matter is
that the Republican Party of today is not the
same party of my father.
"Everybody knows that after 1948 in the
FEW BLACK REPUBLICANS
African-Americans in South
Carolina are loyal Democrats. Here’s
a breakdown of black elected offi
cials and which party gets the
biggest share of black votes.
^ Number of black elected officials
in South Carolina—450*
♦ Number of black Republican
elected officials in South
Carolina—2
WHERE BLACK VOTERS
CAST THEIR BALLOTS
♦ 8,400 African-Americans voted in
the 2008 S.C. Republican presiden
tial primary.
♦ 290,000 African-Americans voted
in the 2008 S.C. Democratic
Presidential primary.
*Estimate from 2003 U.S. Census survey
© 2008, The State (Columbia, S.C.).
Visit The State at http://www.
thestate.com/
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune
Information Services.
r
. „ . Photo courtesy of MCT Wire Service
A billboard in South Carolina is drawing attention to Martin Luther King, Jr’s affilia
tion with the Republican Party. John McCain will likely be the party’s nominee.
Democratic Party, the Democratic primary
was opened up for black participation.
Those people who did not want to associate
with blacks, they then left the Democratic
Party. They then found refuge in the
Republican Party. Everybody knows that,
except for maybe the girl that wrote the
press release."
Rice claims she knew King and attended
his church in Atlanta.
Dawson said he is unsure of King's
political party roots and unsure of how
others can be so sure now.
"I would suspect Dr. King would be a
Democrat today," Dawson said.